A senior adviser to President
Barack Obama
and possibly the first female US defence secretary has described Australia’s decision to abstain on a vote elevating Palestine’s status at the United Nations as a disappointment.

Michele Flournoy, former undersecretary of defence for policy – the Pentagon’s most senior woman – made it clear the US would have preferred Australia to join in opposing the Palestinian move.

“The US position is that Israel and the Palestinians need to pursue a two-state solution through negotiations,’’ she told The Australian Financial Review. “Efforts to create de facto statehood through the UN is not the appropriate approach.’’

She noted, however, that the White House response implied no direct criticism of America’s friends and allies that had taken different ­positions.

“America’s preference was for others to vote as we did, but we respect that our allies and friends have independent foreign policies and will make their own choices,’’ she said.

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Ms Flournoy, who is believed to be on a short list to replace Leon Panetta as Defence Secretary in the second Obama administration, visited Australia in connection with her work building a public sector practice for the Boston Consulting Group.

She talked to the Financial Review about US security policy in the region, and in particular managing China’s rise and what Mr Obama has described as an “inflection point’’ in America’s global outlook.

“We are out of Iraq. We are at a point of transition in Afghanistan,’’ she said. “There’s an opportunity to lift our gaze from those two places and think about opportunities, and to the extent we can we want to invest more in Asia. That means investing in our alliances, but also investing in the relationship with China.

“We welcome the rise of China, and that China’s economic growth is in our interests. There is no economy we are more interdependent with than China’s. We have an interest in China becoming integrated into a rules-based order and becoming a responsible stakeholder in that order.’’

Asked how America and its allies might set boundaries for China in its regional ambitions, Ms Flournoy was cautious, but made it clear the US was committed to advancing discussion about a “code of conduct’’ that would provide a framework for resolution of disputes.

“There are certain rules of the road that all powers are expected to respect and so when you see an instance where China engages in provocative behaviour, perhaps in the South China Sea, the US is continuing to play its historical role as a stabilising influence by saying, ‘Wait a minute, there are rules.’ ’’

On Sunday, Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott
said Australia should not have abstained from the vote at the UN General Assembly, arguing that it jeopardised bipartisan policy on the Jewish state.“It seemed to put in jeopardy 60-odd years of settled bipartisan policy of rock solid support for Israel,’’ he said. “The Coalition’s position is that we should have voted against that United Nations resolution, we should continue to vote against any additional recognition for Palestine until such time as the Palestinians are prepared to unambiguously recognise Israel’s right to exist behind secure borders."

Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
again played down suggestions she had been rolled, arguing: “There is a government position here, which is my position, which has already been put into operation. We abstained, the vote was always going to be carried, and it was carried by a substantial majority.’’